The Danville News/Daily Item

Robert John Andrews

15 October, 2026

“Right Questions”

Word Count:  750

 

Anybody can come up with ready answers.  That’s easy.  And lazy.  Far more interesting and productive is learning to ask uncomfortable questions.  Back when I enjoyed an office, a sign sat in front of my phone saying, “Are you asking the right question?”  I learned this because I was privileged to serve on Geisinger’s Ethics Committee.  The committee was oft presented with thorny dilemmas arising from medical cases.  If a transfusion will save the life of a child of Jehovah Witnesses, do you give it?  Can a Nurse conscientiously object to a Doctor’s order?

 

What I quickly learnt was how most folk viewed the Ethics Committee as a tribunal authorized to render verdicts.  It instead operated on the principle that decisions become evident once you clarify the situation.  Discernment more than judgment.  Gather facts.  Certitude has its place but ambivalence supplies better virtues. 

 

Once upon a time, we believed the sun revolved around us.  It doesn’t.  Once upon a time, I played with toy dinosaurs.  I’d carry my dinosaurs to first grade in my lunch bag to play with them.  Triceratops goring Brontosaurus.  Tyrannosaurus attacking Stegosaurus, Stego’s tail swinging fearsome spikes.  Grrr. Roar.  Alas, Stegosaurus and T-Rex never fought each other.  The Jurassic dinosaur Stegosaurus had been extinct for approximately 80 million years before the appearance of the Cretaceous dinosaur Tyrannosaurus.  Evidence proves that they never knew each other, similar to those depictions where humans and dinosaurs hung around together for a while.  History isn’t the Flintstones.  Those balloons of certainty get popped by prickly facts.  Fools and quivering cowards aren’t confident enough to have their assumptions, corrupt schemes, and opinions questioned. 

 

Willful ignorance in beliefs is no friend and no virtue.  Willful ignorance in might is no friend and no virtue. Willful ignorance in patriotism is no friend and no virtue. Willful ignorance in religion is no friend and no virtue. Willful ignorance in politics is no friend and no virtue. Willful ignorance in science is no friend and no virtue.

 

I’m impressed by those who proclaim certainty about the will of God.  Me?  I’ve always found life more mottled than black and white, far more complex and nuanced, less binary, me rejecting the myopia of a dualistic worldview where the world is divided between good and evil. 

 

We’re supposed to use our minds, our intellects.  Thinking is how we grow up.  When left to our feelings, actions can be damaging.  The mind governs heart, spleen, genitals. 

 

What kind of questions are there?

 

Open Questions: “What does artificial intelligence do?”

 

Closed Questions: “Who produced AI technology?”

 

Follow-up Questions (mirror questions, probe questions):  “Now, I understand that ______; is that correct?”

 

Neutral Questions (answerer is free): “How did you get into this research?”

 

Biased Questions (pressing for compliance): “You applaud the benefits of AI, right?” 

 

Leading Questions: “Isn’t profit your incentive rather than public benefit?”

 

I valued it when my church personnel committee reviewed my pastoral performance.  We didn’t always agree, but their critiques encouraged improvement.  We each must listen and be held accountable.  Such is the advantage and strength of self-examination. 

 

Isn’t this why you choose to read, either by newsprint or screen, one of the singularly most valuable and essential ingredients for a successful society?  A Free Press.  God bless an unfettered, unbanned First Amendment.  Thank you, journalists.  I’m firmly convinced that without a Free Press there would have been no American Revolution. 

 

Critical thinking tilts us toward the truthful path.  Penetrating questions born of criticism enable us to gain knowledge which leads toward problem solving, whether regarding cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence, Iran, inflation, vaccines, climate change, governmental immigration crimes.

 

It’s not as if we can trust those in charge to police themselves. Meanwhile, Congress and Mr. Toad (aka Donald Trump) regulate college sports.  Bloodsucking tech billionaires are scarier than any Halloween ghoul or goblin.  Sure, we can trust them to regulate how AI is to be developed and deployed, just as we could trust the tobacco industry to protect the public, just as we could trust the petroleum industry’s comments about how safe lead was in our gasoline and paint.  It took a scientist to spare us from lead poisoning by asking questions, researching lead content in Antarctic ice, gathering information, sharing worries with the public, fighting the good fight aided by journalists shredding propaganda with sharp facts.  Who are you going to trust?

 

Returning to our Ethics Committee methodology, think about the Free Press as an oncologist, identifying, treating, rooting out cancerous diseases confronting the body politic.